Rebirth: A Second Chance
by loki0191
Summary: The Rokudaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, sacrificed everything to bring peace to the world. Given a second chance to find happiness, he is reborn into a new world, in a new time. How will modern Japan and the Sekirei handle a shinobi of times long past? Starts from Manga ch. 670. NO SLASH. Warning: first fanfic.
1. Prologue: The End of an Era

_**Rebirth: A Second Chance**_

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sekirei - they are owned by their respective authors and I'm only doing this for fun. NO money is being made off of this and this is a work of fanfiction.

**Foreword**

This is, as one would find in many novels, a note to all of my future readers to help you understand exactly what it is you're getting into. Thus, despite the fact that this may seem to be quite boring, I do implore you to read this note as I do not wish for any complaints regarding what I will be doing with this fic to bother me when I get down to writing it. So please pay close attention to what I am going to say, and if you like what is going to come, then I hope you enjoy the tale I'm planning to wave. If you don't, that's perfectly fine, but please don't clog up my inbox telling me what I should be writing instead.

I have been on this site for the past few years and more often than not, come across fics that held great premise but became lackluster after just a few chapters simply because the author was not clear as to what he or she wished to do with their writing. It is for this reason that I'm bothering with a foreword to this story and I will be completely honest with you. I am writing this story for 3 reasons: 1) the plot bunnies in my head will simply not go away; 2) I need an outlet to refine my writing & 3) The origin story of the Naruto-verse being revealed to us is just too good a plot device to not use. Now that that is out of the way, I suppose I should get into my plans for this story and why it was that I decided to write it.

I started watching _Naruto_ the anime when I was 13 and only began to read the manga about a year later. Starting off, I loved the depth and the potential the manga had and having always had a bit of a fascination with ninjas (after all, who doesn't?) I was looking forward to reading it. The protagonist after whom the work was named struck me as naïve and foolish, especially as he was a ninja, but I let it go because of his age. After all, if I was reading about a 12-year-old killing people I would be a little disturbed myself. So I was quite ecstatic when I found out that I didn't have to wait for the part 2 of the manga and began to look forward to the many different ways in which Naruto could have grown. After all, he was travelling with an S-class ninja. Needless to say, I was thoroughly disappointed.

I wonder at this point, if many of you have also felt similar distaste for how Naruto has developed as a character. I do not refer to his abilities (even though I have issues with that) but rather his personality considering the fact that he is in fact a _ninja_ i.e. a killer.

But now you ask, where am I going with all of this? Well, it was my disappointment at the cannon that got me into fanfiction, and after reading the most recent chapter, I simply cannot abide by this anymore. The last few chapters have been some of the best and the worst in the series and it is the "worst" part that really pushed me into writing this story. As The Pro mentions in one of his stories, Naruto doesn't need some long-lost bloodline in order to become strong. He simply needs a few brain-cells to rub together and actually needs to work hard. Minato Sahashi, who is basically the generic "loser-who-gains-a-spine" character in any harem anime, similarly annoys me. And with the recent chapters dealing with the Sage of the Six Paths and the greater descriptions about Kaguya, this plot bunny about her being Sekirei just won't go away. So this is an attempt to join the concept of the sekirei with concept of the Naruto-verse actually taking place on Pangaea millions of years in the past.

As stated above, this is something to keep me occupied in my free time so it would be best to not expect fast updates, especially as I'm going to university. I do detest stories where people try to write English but fail miserably so yes, I will do my best to keep this tale as grammatically correct as possible. If I do make an error however, please don't hesitate to PM me about it. I will be using the Japanese honorifics and several individual words, such as jutsu names, but will not be having random sentences in Japanese pop up in my story. Chapter lengths will wary but, excluding the prologue, I will try to keep the individual chapters as long as I can.

Regarding the pairings in this story, they are undecided as of this moment, but Naruto _**will not be gay**_ nor will he be tied to Hinata or Sakura. That said I do enjoy happy endings, so the sekirei he ends up with will depend on the type of character he will become. At this point, I'm aiming for Kazehana and Kochou being his main sekirei, though I'm still undecided on Akitsu joining in. Again, this is subject to change. Helpful reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome. Flamer will be ignored.

I have said what I've needed to and you have been warned. So now, let the story begin.

**1. Prologue: The End of an Era**

The land burned and split and died as the final battle to decide the fate of the shinobi race was fought. 7 long years, filled with blood and death and tragedy and heartbreak had passed since the beginning of the Fourth Shinobi War and it had all led up to this final clash. There wasn't a single shinobi who wasn't involved by this point, whether they were genin or jounin, from Konohaor Kiri; and Naruto's generation, who had known only peace and relative tranquility, had been the first, and thus the youngest, members of the Allied Shinobi Forces, to fight in it. In younger years, they had all dreamed of the glory of battle, of enemies defeated and honor won, the truth was as far from the fact as it could be. Naruto's generation of shinobi had been the first to fight in this war, and therefore, they had also been the first to die, unprepared for the horrors they faced.

The resurrection of Madara had been the turning point for the A.S.F. Despite Obito's support, it hadn't changed the fact that the man they were facing was still _Uchiha Madara_, the boogeyman of the shinobi world, and the damage he had caused, both to the numbers of the shinobi forces and the overall morale of the shinobi, had been catastrophic. His _Tengai Shinsei_, which summoned not one, but two meteors from the sky had killed two-fifths of the alliance members, while the resurrected _Edo Tensei_ shinobi had caused a great amount of damage on their own. Perhaps if it were only Madara they were facing, the Shinobi of the 5 great nations of the Elemental Continent would have eventually regained their former numbers and strength, but that hope was quickly destroyed when Maito Gai opened the last of the 8 gates.

With his sacrifice, along with the sacrifice of his apprentice Rock Lee and the aid of Hatake Kakashi, Namikaze Minato and Sabaku no Gaara, Maito Gai actually managed to cause Madara enough damage to force the legendary shinobi to retreat for the day. What was meant to be a victory, was quickly soured when Uchiha Obito, knowing that Uzumaki Naruto would not survive the resealing of the Kyūbi's yin-chakra, returned from the _sharingan's_ pocket dimension to pursue Madara and retrieve the Kyūbi's yang-chakra. Aided by Tsunade and Orochimaru, Obito succeeded in his mission and even managed to force Madara to kill the Black Zetsu, but it came a terrible price.

"I once called you weak, woman," Madara had said, "you should be proud, that you've forced me to change my opinion. No, you are strong, in your own way, but don't forget that even Hashirama was unable to defeat me in this form." He then proceeded to remove Obito's implanted _rinnegan_ and place it in his empty socket, rip out Orochimaru's soul using _Ningendō_, the _rinnegan's_ Human Path, and kill Tsunade once and for all, using a concentrated _Shinra Tensei_ to turn her bones to dust. Madara had fled, but the remaining members of the alliance had been left without 60% of their comrades and their morale had been destroyed. But the day was not over yet, and more tragedies had yet to occur.

It was an exhausted Obito who returned to his _sharingan's_ pocket dimension, bringing back a panicking Sakura and Naruto, who was slowly, but surely, dying. Knowing that he, himself didn't have long left in the world with the death of Black Zetsu, Obito took the Kyūbi's yang-half and returned it to it's original container, adding in the small amount of the Hachibi's and the Ichibi's chakras he had managed to take from Madara earlier before turning to his former teammate and teacher.

"Kakashi," he gasped, "I once said that this world was broken, that this was nothing but hell and I still believe that-"

"Obito-" Kakashi started

"-no! Let me finish!" Obito said before his whole body shuddered in pain. "This world may be a sort of hell," he continued "but it is of our own making. That is what I believe. I, I have made so many mistakes Kakashi, blinded by my hate, but I find that, in the end, this was a good way to go, _neh_, Kakashi, Minato-_sensei_?"

Minato smiled sadly as he took in the visage of his former student, knowing that this was the end, knowing that, as before, he was helpless to save the ones he loved. After all, there was nothing to be done, so what else could they do but smile, and hide their feelings as they wept inside.

"Perhaps in another life," Obito continued, his breaths getting shallower, "perhaps in another life things may have been different, but this is our reality, and I couldn't change it." -Gasp- "But that boy, Naruto, is special, in a way none of us are. He will end our suffering I know it. Kakashi, use my eye and help hi-" And thus, with his last words left unsaid, but understood by his teammate and his teacher, Uchiha Obito died, blind, and with a body disfigured and broken by his life, but with a mysterious smile on his face nonetheless.

Obito died believing in Uzumaki Naruto, and leaving behind his eye for Kakashi once more, but it didn't change the fact that Uzumaki Naruto's body couldn't handle the forceful insertion of the chakras of not one but 3 tailed beasts, especially as he was already drained of his own chakra before. And so, after almost 30 minutes of keeping him on the edge of life and death, and after learning that her master had been killed, Haruno Sakura, desperate and in a panicked state, did the only thing that could bring back her teammate. She used _Kishō Tensei_, the very technique that Chiyo of Suna had used to bring her Kazekage back to life, a technique that sacrificed the life-force of one person for another.

Now there were several differences of course, mainly that Chiyo had been drained of nearly all her chakra and was on old woman on the verge of death. The was also the fact that While Gaara had bee ndead for hours when that technique had been used, Naruto was still hanging on to life, but just barely. Technically, Sakura, who had re-created the _jutsu_ after that mission to Suna, should have been forced to sacrifice only a few years of her life to heal Naruto, but the problem was that Madara ripping out the Kyūbi from Naruto had almost drained him of his life force, his Uzumaki blood being the only thing keeping him alive. There was also the matter of Sakura coming from a family of first-generation shinobi, lacking the vast reserves once held by her master and Chiyo, while Naruto, who came from the Uzumaki bloodline had been gifted with unnaturally high life force and chakra reserves, even compared to his fellow Uzumaki. All of this together led to only one possible outcome for Sakura's actions: in order to fully bring her friend back to full health and restore his life force to what it once was, Sakura had to give up all of her life force in exchange.

Realizing that this was the end, she spoke to her former teacher, who could do nothing but watch as one of his precious students sacrificed herself for the other, " Kakashi-_sensei _, when that idiot wakes up tell him that I have only one last request, one final wish for him to accomplish, ok?" "I will Sakura," Kakashi replied, a single tear escaping his uncovered eye. "Tell him… tell him that what I want for him is to live a long life and find happiness. Tell him, that I know that he'll blame himself for this but that I chose this, _sensei_, that this was my choice. I know he'll be upset, but tell him that I believe in him and that he'd better become a great Hokage," and with her last words Haruno Sakura passed from this life, leaving behind a team that was broken, but knowing that her actions would help stop the madman who had caused all this pain. Sakura was the last casualty on that day, but her death, along with the deaths of thousands of others had far-reaching consequences.

When Naruto, wiser from his talk with the Sage of the Six Paths, stronger with the assimilation of the biju's chakras along with the combining of the Kyūbi's yin and yang halves and fully healed, awoke from his week long coma, the news of what had transpired in the interim nearly broke him. Unlike Nagato's attack on Konoha, there was no way for the dead to return this time. The talk he had with Kakashi along with Sakura's last wishes that he had received from the man were probably the only things that kept him from ending his life because of his guilt. But the Allied Shinobi Forces needed him, needed his strength as the last jinchūriki left. He met with the remaining Kage, and after that along with several meetings with the jounin council of Konoha, Naruto was named Rokudaime Hokage of Konoha. Naruto had finally achieved his childhood dream, and yet, it was a hollow victory, with only a few of the people he wanted to stand beside him when he reached his goal left alive to actually do so.

Naruto had been made Kage because of his power, because there wasn't really anyone left qualified who wanted the job and because of the last wishes of Tsunade herself. They wouldn't know it then, but making Naruto Hokage was probably the best thing that could have happened at that time, the long-term consequences of which wouldn't be felt for a long time yet.

**XXX**

Becoming a Kage changed Naruto. The blonde was now responsible for the many lives,not just his own. Every decision he made had to be weighed carefully, for a mistake would lead to death, nit his own, but that of the men and women in his command. It helped the blonde become calmer, and drew out the leader in him. His appointment as Hokage even helped him call in favors from the various Daimyō he had saved in his younger years, with the Land of Spring, for instance, providing the army with its chakra armor and the Daimyō of the Land Birds and the Land of Vegetables ensuring that the A.S.F. were supplied with food and medicines. The number of allies that Naruto had cultivated shocked the other Kage and even most of his shinobi, while Naruto himself felt vindicated, his actions allowing him to brush aside any detractors who felt that he was too young for the job.

But not everything was perfect. They still had a war to fight and Naruto's new position had a distinct change in how his classmates interacted with him. After all, he was their Hokage now, the man they were all willing to kill for, to die for. Naruto certainly didn't like the new way in which he was treated, but realized that it was needed for the shinobi and leaders of the other nations to see that he was respected. The silent, unwavering support of Kakashi, who had thrown himself into helping his student cope with his new responsibilities with a religious fervor, probably helped Naruto the most.

Naruto was quickly proving himself to be a quick study in leadership and politics, but even with his new knowledge, he wasn't able to keep the promise he had made to Sakura so long ago. Uchiha Sasuke, while on their side, was persona non grata in the shinobi forces. In a system that placed loyalty to the Kage and the village above all else, becoming a traitor was unforgivable. And Sasuke's position was not like that of his brother Itachi, who had left the village on orders from his Kage, who had sacrificed everything for his village. Sasuke had left Konoha when he was 13, running straight into the arms of Konoha's greatest traitor after Madara himself. It didn't help that Sasuke continued to throw his power and ideals around, not caring what people thought of them. That, and the knowledge that he was gunning for Naruto's position of Hokage, was more than enough for the blonde himself, to grow wary of his former teammate; Sasuke's lack of reaction towards Sakura's sacrifice driving a wedge between the two. But Sasuke's power was needed, especially as Madara hadn't been idle.

While Madara had awakened the _rinnegan_ close to his death, it didn't change the fact that the man was a genius, a reincarnation of the sage's first son Indra. He had had years to perfect the usage of the _rinnegan_, the effects of which was being seen throughout the continent. Rallying the smaller villages under his banner, he tempted them with the promise of the overthrowing of the old system, gaining an army under his command. His position as the Jyūbi jinchuuriki, and the wielder of the legendary _dōjutsu_, had places like Kusa and Taki declaring him a God, while Ame, thought him to be Pain, their savior. Nagato's wish for anonymity had backfired on him, as Madara now gained followers who would happily die for the man, and the Uchiha ancestor had absolutely no qualms about using them.

With Madara bringing in more and more zealots under his banner, and with the A.S.F. having lost a large number of shinobi in the first battle, the idea of quality over quantity became the standard operating procedure for the A.S.F. This was where Naruto's training truly began. Naruto had always been smart on the battlefield, capable of deducing he weakness of his enemies and forming strategies on the fly. It was something that the Nidaime and his father the Yondaime, noticed, and quickly began to draw out this potential out of the blonde. It certainly wasn't easy, with years of the blonde masking his intelligence having become second nature to Naruto, but without the ability to properly fight with their fellow shinobi, Senju Tobirama and Namikaze Minato had nothing but time of their hands. It was this training, more than any other, that truly revealed to them exactly how bad Naruto's childhood had been, and the long lasting consequences of it. Naruto, who had originally tried so hard to please his superiors when he was a child, had found that they simply did not care for the young jinchuuriki and slowly, he had begun losing motivation to actually study as the years went by. Well, he certainly didn't lack for motivation at this point.

With the stabilizing of the Kyūbi's chakra within him, along with the chakras of the Hachibi and the Ichibi adding to his already impressive reserves, Naruto's secondary chakra nature, Water, made itself known. And with a master of _suiton_ _ninjutsu_ right beside him along with liberal usage of his signature _kage bunshin no jutsu_, Naruto's proficiency with his second chakra nature quickly rose to impressive heights. This time, spent training with the Nidaime and his father, learning their techniques, their philosophies & with the father and son pair growing closer and getting the change to know each other, were probably the happiest moments of Naruto's life at this point. But there was still a war to be won.

The war, which no one thought would have lasted more than a few months, with victory for either side being quick and decisive, turned into a war of attrition. The crueler method of dispatching the enemy was more often that not the preferred choice, with the new rules of engagement being that there were no rules. Any and all battles were to the death, with neither side giving quarter. This war, long, bloody and cruel had now finally come down to this last battle, where every single shinobi on the continent was present.

It was atop a small hill, created by Iwa shinobi, that Naruto now stood. Finishing up his final preparations, a sealing matrix that expounded on the true and final form of the _Shiki Fuujin_ lay in front of him, the technique that had claimed the souls of 4 of the 5 Hokage of Konoha, and would now claim the soul of its latest and youngest Hokage as well. Only his father, Kurama and the Nidaime knew of his true plan, while the other Kage simply thought that the five of them would be sacrificed to destroy Madara once and for all. Their successors had already been picked out, but Naruto knew that it was only for show, he knew that there was no way that any shinobi was going to walk away from this final battle intact. His talk with the _Rikudō Sennin_ had certainly revealed a lot of things to him, with the old sage unlocking his son's full chakra that existed within Naruto, in order to help him defeat Madara. But the old sage was wrong about one thing. This war, this never-ending cycle of hatred had not begun with the Sage's two sons but with the Sage's mother, Kaguya. The creature that had com from so far away had used her power to create peace, but neither she nor her sons took into account that humanity had an incalculable potential for cruelty and malice. This last 7 years had been nothing but an education on the cruelty that was within every human out there. And chakra only made it easier for hate and cruelty to exist.

The Nidaime had diagnosed Naruto with a messiah complex when they first started training, something that the man blamed Naruto's father and mentors for. If anything, the man had been disgusted by how Konoha had treated Naruto, and had panicked when he learnt that the neglect and passive abuse had been enough for Naruto to create a second personality in his mind. A lot of the time had therefore been spent with Tobirama helping his new student to integrate his negative feelings into his consciousness, and the man was proud to have succeeded in this effort. This had had a marked change in Naruto's behavior towards others, though most had put it off as being caused by the stress of his new position. Naruto, when learning of what had been done to him, and finally coping with the help of his new _sensei_, eventually managed to forgive his father and Kakashi for it. Not because of any mental disabilities, but because war had taught him that their lives were too short to spend them blaming and hating other for things that had been done so long ago. It had allowed the three to become even closer, though Naruto knew that both his father and his second-in-command still blamed themselves for what had happened.

This new Naruto was calmer and more rational than his younger self. His spirit and heart hardened in the fires of war. He knew what had to be done, for he had found the answer that Nagato and Jiraya had been searching for. He was the child of the prophecy, destined to heal or destroy the world, but none of them, the toads or his teachers had taken into account one important thing. Before anything else, he was Uzumaki Naruto, the most unpredictable ninja to have been born, and he knew that in order for the world to heal and grow, the old order needed to be destroyed first. This idea, that sacrifice was the path to peace, sickened him.

So as he rushed into battle, using _Hiraishin_ along with deadly _Fūton_ and Suiton _ninjutsu_ to kill the enemy shinobi in his way, the great scroll containing the final _Shiki Fūjin_ strapped to his back, a sense of deadly calm settled in him. He knew that this was the end for them all. That his people would not, could not survive for there to be peace. '_Hmmmm…'_ rumbled the voice of Kurama in his mind, '_well it seems this is the end, neh Naruto?'_ 'Yeah, Kurama, I'm sorry I have to do tny of thishis,' he replied, dodging under the arm of a Kusa kunoichi, before slitting her throat with his wind-enhanced kunai.

'_Hmph, listen up Naruto, what you're going to do is insane and cruel, and the crazy thing is that it might actually work. But don't you dare regret it, so that this sacrifice won't be in vain. Got it? I believe in you Naruto, and well, if you got even me, the great Kyūbi, to think that, then you definitely can't regret what you're going to do_,' Kurama smirked, bringing a grim smile of his own to Naruto's face. While the two had grown closer, more like bothers now than just biju and jinchuuriki, Kurama would still always have that arrogant streak in him.

In the First Battle of the war, Naruto had given a small, regenerating amount of Kurama's yang-chakra to the shinobi of the A.S.F. This was what they were all using now, to protect themselves from Madara's walking bombs. Let it be said that Madar was a tactical genius, even if he was a cruel bastard. When he realized the extent to which the people of the smaller shinobi nations worshiped him, he was quick to use it and twist Naruto's idea to his purposes. He used cursed seals to connect his shinobi to him, allowing him to draw chakra from them if necessary, and turning them into walking bombs with but a thought. It was this that had caused so much damage to the A.S.F. For in order to stop them, you had to kill them before they detonated, and what sort of person, shinobi or not, could so easily kill a crying child running at them? This, more than anything, convinced Naruto that Sasuke, even if it was for the wrong reasons, had a point. This old shinobi system needed to be destroyed, and the secrets of chakra lost to the world, if there was to be any peace. And in this battle more than any other, every single chakra user, from the young genin to the old, retired war veterans and village elders, were fighting. Madara, in creating his walking bombs, had created a chain that tied his forces to him through chakra, just as Naruto's distribution of Kurama's chakra had tied the shinobi of the A.S.F. to him.

Naruto reached the place where Sasuke and Madara were fighting, the younger Uchiha barely managing to hold off his enemy for the time being. And with a hand signal to his former teammate, Naruto unfurled the scroll on his back and began a long chain of hand-seals. Activating the final biju mode he had unlocked, he used it to bind the three of them, Sasuke, Madara and himself, together. And Naruto watched as the final part of his plan came into motion, as the _Shinigami_ was summoned, in a greater and more terrible form than before. He watched as the eyes of the shinobi on the battlefield turned to the three great chakra constructs; watched as the shinobi began to despair as hundreds of thousands hands, ethereal and ghost-like, sprouted form the _Shinigami_ and latched on to every chakra user of the battlefield, with her main two hands connected, through Naruto, to Madara and Sasuke.

For the first time, since he had been resurrected, Madara began to panic. "What have you done boy!" he exclaimed. "Ended it all," Naruto replied with a bloody smile. The pain was excruciating, but he was Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, and he did not falter, did not give up.

As the process of the extraction of the souls into the void began through this final form of the _Shiki Fūjin_, not being used to seal but destroy, Naruto met the eyes of his fellow Kage. They understood what was going to happen it seemed, knowing that even the deactivation of their biju-chakra modes would no longer help them. And as they met his eyes, he found nothing but calm acceptance in them. After all, they had been the ones to place the burden of finding a final solution on Naruto's shoulders. They had been the ones to give him leeway to do _whatever necessary _to end the war; and most importantly, they were shinobi, and to be shinobi was to walk hand in hand with death. So as they died, one by one, the felt no real regret, silently mouthing _sayonara_ to their fellow Kage. Knowing that this was goodbye, regardless of what waited them on the other side. And so, as the shinobi race died that day, as the Jyūbi was destroyed and Madara screamed to the heavens at the destruction of his dreams, Naruto was left with his oldest, and possibly dearest friend; lying alone on the battlefield, the last shinobi alive.

'It's been one hell of a ride, Kurama,' he gasped. '_Ah, yeah… I never thought that I'd find a human that I respected more than the old man, Naruto. But, you, again, prove me wrong. This is truly the end, isn't it?_' Kurama replied as he began to fade away. 'Yeah, no second chances, no regrets, it had to be done my friend' '_How strange, Naruto, that here, at the end, I feel no fear of death. Perhaps it because I know that I'm not dying alone… that I know that I'm dying with my brother_' Two tears, from the eyes of both the young man and the old fox silently rolled down their faces at the admission.

'Kurama, I hated being called a jinchuuriki at first. But now, I can't be anything but grateful to have been one. You're right, we don't die alone, and the two of us, we were neer alone, not really, were we?' said Naruto, a sad smile settling on his face. '_No, you and I, we were not alone, Naruto. You, truly are one of a kind… brother. Sayonara' _'Sayonara, Kurama.'

And thus Uzumaki Naruto, the last shinobi, and Kurama, the last biju, took their final breaths.


	2. Interlude: The Void

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sekirei - they are owned by their respective authors and I'm only doing this for fun. NO money is being made off of this and this is a work of fanfiction.

**Chapter 2.**

He was a drop in the ocean of nothingness… he was nothing and he was everything… he was a man, a woman, an animal, a shinobi, a samurai… he was… he was…

He was Senju Raiha, he was Uchiha Izuna, he was Ashura, he was… he was… he was a part of the void… he was an anachronism, of a time long past... of a time that had yet to come…

He was Uzumaki Naruto… hokage-jinchuuriki-son-lover-friend-leader-shinobi-brother-saviour-destroyer-demon-summoner-sage-_hero_.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, his journey was not yet complete… he had suffered-lived-fought-trained-loved-loved-loved-died-_sacrificed_.

He was Uzumaki Naruto and the world hated-him-loved-him-_owed-him-a-debt-that-could-not-be-repaid_.

He was Uzumaki Naruto and _he deserved a chance to-be-happy-to-live-to-love_.

He was Uzumaki Naruto and he knew who he was, what he was: hokage-jinchuuriki-son-lover-friend-leader-shinobi-brother-saviour-sage… _human_.

And as he floated between worlds, between time… Uzumaki Naruto could do nothing but reflect upon his life and wait to be reincarnated.

It was on Septembet 15th in the year 2000 of the current calendar, at a hospital in Wakayama, that a woman, Sahashi Takami labored to give birth to twin sons. She had been surprised to learn that she was pregnant, surprised but happy. And learning that she was going to give birth to twins had filled her with a sense of… something – that she couldn't quite grasp yet. Perhaps it was a sense of maternal love, maybe it was even fear at the thought of giving birth – of becoming a _mother_. But as the wails of her newborn sons pierced the delivery room of the modest hospital, she couldn't do anything but smile, looking happier than she had ever been holding her twin sons in her arms.

The eldest, she would name Minato, while the other, who looked very similar to her Minato (fraternal twins, not identical, the scientist in her noted), had eyes that were the color of the deep, eternal ocean. For some reason, it reminded her of a whirlpool, churning and twisting endlessly and thus, she named him Naruto - _maelstrom_.

In the maternity ward in a modest hospital in Wakayama, Japan, two twins lay side by side. They would cry when kept apart and already the nurses were talking of them growing up to be inseparable. It was here that a small baby, the twin, _Naruto_, looked up with eyes that would remind people of the calm, eternal ocean; clutching his brother to him.

Uzumaki Naruto, now known as Sahashi Naruto had been given his second chance at life, at happiness, at love. He had been _reborn_… _dattebayo_.


End file.
